Analysis of front cover

This magazine is a rock magazine as you can see on the front cover the issues and articles are about rock stars and their lives and music. The audiences of the magazine are over 16’s interested in rock music. Their interests could be reading about their favourite musicians, skateboarding or gigs. The central image uses a direct mode of address as they are looking straight at the camera.
This means that they are trying to make it look like they want a personal relationship with the reader. My Chemical Romance is in the front cover as they are very popular in the music world at the time the magazine was issued. The framing of the shot in the front cover is making the band look up at the reader which can give the reader a false sense of empowerment however as they have a don’t mess with us attitude its showing that even though their below the reader they are not intimidated. They might have had also an album out or where touring at the time as well. The anchorage text says ‘death drugs and revenge…they’re not okay’ this implies that the artists are violent, bad and not very nice. The overall message that this band is giving is ‘don’t mess with us’ as they intimidate the reader with their attitude. The other groups are also represented with a similar attitude as they all pretty scary.
The buzz word this magazine has used is ‘Free’ this can make the reader want to buy the magazine as they will think is value for money as they are getting a free goodie with it. The design of the magazine is gothic as they use red to represent blood and the title’s font has the look of broken glass.
The title of magazine ‘kerrang!’ almost gives the sounds similar to that of a loud guitar, this shows me that the magazine’s readership, image and style is very rebellious, loud and hardcore. This is also the same as the genre of the magazine. The puffs suggest to me that the readers the magazine expects will be interested in the magazine’s awards show and their party pictures. The slogan of the magazine is ‘Life is Loud’ this suggests that the magazine’s genre is very loud and so are their lifestyles. This helps to attract the reader as they will read that and relate it to their life and their love of loud music. The colours used are very boring but it does make the bold red colour stand out.
The strategies used by the magazines to attract its readers include exclusive features, free goodies and important articles.